Personally, I don't have much fear about pricing of my items that I would like to put up on eBay. I suppose that I have some confidence in the fact that if I undervalue my chip(s) or other merchandise a little the bidding should resolve that most of the time. That is one reason that I am also a big proponent of actually starting bidding with a minimum amount that you are willing to take to make a return on your investment. Or in some cases if the listing fees will cost you more at the logical price than how much are you willing to loose to get rid of an item and recoup part of your investment in order to save a few cents in listing fees. Of course if there is some specific item where I know it is really valuable but don't know how much, I would maybe think of an appraisal of the item.

For most items the pricing would really seem simple. I keep records of what I paid for my chips and such. One thing that I would like to do is go hit some garage or yard or estate sales to pick some stuff up also. In all these cases I would sort of know what an item cost me. If I find something that might have potential, run the discription through eBay and see if any others are selling. You might be surprised. I have found so many things on eBay that I would have never imagined would still be around etc. If you don't find anything listed at the moment look for the option to search recently ended auctions. I don't know how far back they go but you can find the results to ended auctions. If you find some information start your pricing there.

Knowing all my expenses of driving around picking the items, packaging, shipping, storage, cleaning an item up or reconditioning a little maybe and so on I should be able to come up with a cost basis for my price. Then I would simply add on whatever % or amount that I want as profit. I would think that all that should get you pretty close and would at least guarantee you a profit off of your investment.

Then the remaining value is that which you can't really know anyways. The value of items can change dramatically. I have a friend who bought a car some years ago. A Packard I think. It is a 1930s era antique car. As an investment he put tens of thousands of dollars into restoring and rebuilding it. I have seen it a few times in his garage. It is a gorgeous car. He had an offer for something over a hundred thousand about 10 years ago but passed on it thinking it was not enough. Now all the people who would really be interested in that car are either gone or not in a position to be spending their fixed retirement income on such an expensive car. He now can't get half of what he was offered 10 years ago. Now, if he had a muscle car from the 60s or maybe a 57 chevy he might be looking at a totally different marketplace. Maybe not in the area of value but in the area of interest. He has listed his Packard everywhere he can think. No one seems to be interested. At least not for what he put into it. I don't know cars that well so maybe I am a little off on my assumptions and recallections. However, the point is that some items hold value in their nostalgia and the demographics of the people who are in the buying market. That market can change as quickly as day to day. You might list a given chip today and have one bidder and sell it for half of what it is worth. Tomorrow you could list the same chip, have three people watching the auction and sell it for 3 times as much as yesterdays chip. Maybe that is why the Geo. Burns chips have declined while the Playboy chips and the HR Music Group chips seem to be pretty hot. To be honest, (I am 42) There aren't that many George Burns fans out there among my generations. Some of my younger friends don't even know who George burns is. However mention WHO or Shania, or Stones, and so on... A book could say that a chip is worth $30 like the Cigar Afficionado that said that my George Burns 100th Birthday chip was worth that much. However bidding history might show that the chip is really only worth about $18 to $20 and often won't even have takers at $9.99. That price could fluctuate greatly from one day to the next with the condition of the item, the simple number of people who are interested and so on.

That, I would think is the nature of dealing and collecting of antique items or other collectables.